It’s time to nominate! Find out about this year’s Awards criteria and categories.Â
Awards 2026 nominations are open!Â
Each year, SMK celebrates the best campaigns and campaigners. Our interest is in finding those who have made change happen – most effectively, creatively, and courageously.
What do we mean when we say campaigning?
We define campaigning as any activity designed to create social change such as:
Changes in the law or policy – how things work
Changes to a public service – how people are supported
Changes in people’s behaviour or attitudes – how people think
A campaign could be aimed at righting a wrong, protecting an asset, upholding a right, or holding a body to account.
What they should all have in common is the determination to secure a specific change that will make things better – whether for a group of people, a local neighbourhood or for every single one of us.
Read the criteria first to make sure that your nomination will be eligible. Once you are confident your entry has met the requirements you can move on to submitting a nomination.
Nominations are open until Friday 6 February, midnight.
Criteria
The nominee must be:
- A UK resident
- Working on a campaign based in the UK
- Be over the age of 18
- Be involved with a campaign that fits within one of our categories
- Be campaigning on an issue that affects a wider community, not just one individual
- The campaign or work being nominated should have come to fruition, or most of it taken place, in 2024.
- You don’t have to be part of a registered charity to be nominated or to win an Award.
- Not involved in a campaign that is discriminatory, unethical, or hateful. This is intended to ensure that we celebrate campaigns that are conducted responsibly and constructively.
What do we mean by discriminatory, unethical, or hateful*?Â
DiscriminatoryÂ
Discriminatory describes something that is unfair or unjust
It is defined as treating one person or group unfairly worse than others, often based on characteristics like race, gender, or religion. It describes unfair or prejudicial practices, rules, or measures.
UnethicalÂ
Unethical means not conforming to accepted standards of morality, professional conduct, or law.
It is defined as not morally acceptable or not conforming to a high moral standard. It describes behaviour or actions that are wrong and unacceptable according to a society’s rules or beliefs.
HatefulÂ
Hateful means causing or deserving hate; loathsome; detestable, or full of or showing hate.
It is defined as meaning very unkind or unpleasant, or full of or showing hate. It can be used to describe a person, a place, an action, or words that are malicious and cause or deserve strong dislike.
We understand that many campaigns address complex, sensitive, and contested issues – this is often the nature of campaigning. Our role is not to make judgments about the legitimacy of such issues but to focus on how campaigns are conducted and the impact of the social change they have enabled, to meet the awards criteria.
You don’t have to be part of a registered charity to be nominated or to win an Award. However, the Awards can only recognise campaigns that fall within the Charities Act 2011 definition of public benefit. If having read this information carefully you are still unsure if it is appropriate to apply, please contact us at info@smk.org.uk.
Nominate here.Â
Award categories
Long Term Achievement Award
An Award recognising the work and contribution of an exceptional individual who has campaigned over a long period of time.
Creative Change-makers Award
This award recognises where creative interventions such as visual arts, design and performance have contributed to social change.
Best Use of Law
Best Use of Law: Celebrating a campaign that has successfully used the law to drive change in the UK – whether using existing legislation to leverage rights and protections or using strategic litigation to strengthen existing or create new legislation.
Amplifying Voices
Amplifying Voices:Â A campaign led by, or that gives voice and profile to, people who are least heard. It encompasses any group within the protected characteristics of age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships, and pregnancy and maternity.
Best Community Climate & Nature Action
This award celebrates a community coming together for good in their local area to lead a campaign or grassroots action that makes a difference in fighting climate change and protecting the environment.
This category has been co-created by SMK and The Climate Coalition's Great Big Green Week.
David & Goliath
This Award is all about the little guys. It celebrates individuals or small campaign groups that take on much bigger organisations and challenge vested power.
Sponsored by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, in memory of Lord David Shutt.
Seek to bring about significant changes in the political system, making it more accountable, democratic, and transparent and to rebalance power for the well-being of society.
www.jrrt.org.uk
Young Campaigner Award
This award celebrates campaigns instigated, delivered, or led by a person or people between the ages of 18 and 25.
Campaigner of the Year
This award celebrates an outstanding campaigner, change-maker, agitator or disruptor who has worked effectively, creatively, and courageously, whether locally or nationally, over the past year.
Sponsored by the Tenacious Awards, supported by Changing Ideas, the philanthropic foundation of David Graham, and managed by Philanthropy Matters.
The Tenacious Awards support campaigners with true tenacity, working to right injustice.
www.tenaciousawards.org
Campaign of the Year
This award celebrates the outstanding campaign of the past year – not just because of what they won, but also how they won it.
Best Consumer Rights Campaign
To recognise campaigns that successfully challenge poor or unfair consumer practice, or that successfully promote or strengthen consumer rights and protection.
Sponsored by Which?
A charity that offers free consumer advice and campaigns for fairer practices.
www.which.co.uk
SMK National Campaigner Awards 2026 nomination form
Deadline for submission is Friday 6 February 2026. Judging will take place in March, and the Awards will be presented at a ceremony in May 2025. Â